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Hi! I'm an audio engineer and producer and co-owner of a really fantastic recording studio. Apologies if my questions here have been asked already, again I just found this subreddit and am excited to dig through it.
But I have always had a massive passion for video games, and have only had the pleasure of doing sound for a few, very small games.
And I want to do more of it.
No scoring, (I would always find music to licence, or royalty free, or get a friend to score something, etc.). More along the lines of sound design. Being given a list of sounds that the game requires, and either finding or creating them. I have the facilities, and a life based around contract work already, so I'm not looking for full time employment at a game studio.
(PS. This is NOT me making a post offering services, only trying to give you some insight on my situation to help gain more meaningful advice)
So I'm wondering for those that do this, is this still a common role that someone plays with an audio team? Would it be better to try and learn some programming skills to help compliment my more developed understanding of audio as a way of getting more work? I have a bit of programming knowledge, but any programmers would run circles around me, so is it even worth my time learning?

TL;DR - I am already an audio engineer, how do I find more game audio work (not scoring)?

If you already have the facility, frankly I would shoot to do VO recording and processing. It's the less glamorous and slightly boring part of things, but the industry is absolutely flooded with musicians and sound designers.

Yeah, breaking into sound design is going to be tough right now. People who, like you, are entirely focused on that one aspect of the industry can't find work because it's so inundated with people.
In addition to VO recording/editing (which is great advice), you could also use any downtime to record raw sfx materials to sell.
The challenge there is that it's difficult to know what would be useful to a sound designer if you are not one yourself. A lot of pro sfx libraries I use as resources even do it pretty terribly, and I find the stuff I record myself the most useful (but I don't have access to super HD recording facilities or equipment).
I'd be happy to help explain what makes good raw material, and a few tips on recording VO for games if you need it, should either of these things appeal. :) Toss me a line: Liz@BombadeerStudios.com
I'd happily ramble about actual game sound design if you want too...I'm always excited to talk shop.

Forget about programming; learn the tools. FMod, Wwise and Unreal are pretty much the holy trinity - all are free to use and learn, and all are massively well supported in terms of documentation/tutorials/etc.

Personally, I'd recommend starting with FMod and working your way through the user manual - there's an example project and a load of tutorials in there, which are great for getting the hang of how audio actually works in games.

if you've already got the skills to make sounds (which it sounds like you do) get up to speed on implementation. that's what makes game sound different from TV/film work.
as b1000 said learn fmod and wwise. the design tools are free to download so you can play with them. if you're freelance it's good to learn both. where I work we use fmod but the studio across the street uses wwise.

thanks! since I posted this, I picked up fmod and brushed up on Wwise (I was already a little familiar with it). I also started constructing some basic games with Unity just to try and implement my own audio into games. Definitely a huge help, so thanks for the advice.